Explaining the mysteries of digital marketing in 400 non-technobabble words or less.
Mission Statement
This blog’s primary goal is to answer the question, "What's digital marketing?" and provide every client, creative, account and media person with enough knowledge about the digital space to get them through any meeting. It’s second goal is to help you use that knowledge to create smart and effective online marketing. Best of all, no post will get bogged down in technobabble or go over 400 words. After all, you can’t spend all day goofing off on the internet.
Mmmmmmmm, 40k is powerful when harnessed properly. Train you must. Impossible it is not. Doubt you have and fail you will. There is no try, only do. (Now read this again but with a Yoda voice. So much more fun.)
Deep words from a muppet. But also very true and very relevant to getting the most out of a 40k banner.
Let's face it, 40k isn't a lot to work with, but it's better then the 30k we were working with just a year ago. Still, the challenge of doing stellar creative with such limitations is great. But not impossible. The key is to have a Yoda mindset and work with a Yoda team.
My partner and I often come up with banner concepts that push the boundaries of what can be done. In fact, we've heard "that can't be done" more than once. But I honestly can't think of a time that we let that get in our way and didn't end up with a good, if not great, result.
The reason is that we don't take no for an answer. We push for maybe. The beauty of interactive is that just because it hasn't been done doesn't mean it can't be, especially if you work with a team willing to take a risk, push itself, and see what's possible. At the same time, you have to be willing to adjust your concept as development progresses. It wouldn't be fair or effective to push everyone else without being willing to adjust the creative to fit the production. As long as we're moving in the right direction towards a piece we can be proud of, I'm happy.
So what's a Yoda Team? It's a team of people that believe anything is possible and are willing to give it a shot. One such team is the folks at Visual Goodness. Many times we've bid out banners to multiple places only to have most, if not all of them, come back with, "It can't be done." But VG never says that. They always find a way. They may need us to adjust the concept a bit but like I said, as long as we're going in the right direction, I'm happy. Truth be told, there have been times when even I thought we were pushing the limits too much, only to have VG come through with some magic and save the day. And that's why I love having a Yoda team.
So here's the goal: let's all strive to be Yodas and turn those "can't be dones" into "maybes." Only then brilliant banners will you create.
There are those who bad mouth soccer. They call it goofy names. Some even go so far as to call it unAmerican. I can't think of a more American and patriotic moment than this. This just also happens to be a killer example of the social aspect of web video as this little clip is a compilation of several YouTube videos. I love it when my passions collide. Go Yanks!
Playing
today's video games is key to the success of anyone wishing to do
stellar online creative. At least, that's what I tell my wife and
accountant. But seriously, you can learn a lot from playing games. In
the age of print we turned to art books, photographers, and museums for
inspiration. During the TV revolution, we looked to films and later
music videos. Now the digital age is in full effect and the most
inspiring, innovative, ground breaking, and even mind-bending work is
more often than not being done in videos games. Style. Get some. So
much of what we do these days depends on style and execution as much as
idea. Just like a good TV idea can be made outstanding with great
execution and style, so to can online work. Here's my current favorite
example of great style and execution making a good game a killer game, Borderlands. Notice
the unique animation, the type design and motion, the way the music
plays into the concept. It's like a Tarantino movie with aliens and
bigger guns than even he usually brings. I can tell you from first hand
experience that playing Borderlands is a fun and surprising experience
and it's all due to the style. User Interface (UI). It's needed but it can be cool. Take
a quick look at all the browsers available to you. Their core interface
is the same, the house is home, the arrows that spin are reload, the
arrows pointing left and right are back and forward. We've been trained
to expect certain things and we want them. That's not to say we can't
be taught new tricks. The best UI gives us just what we need and
nothing else. But sometimes the way the UI gives it to us can be
refreshing, effective, and fracking cool. Every
First-Person Shooter (FPS) has a basic UI: health bar, shield bar, gun
icon your using, ammo in gun and ammo available, map, and a directional
finder to your next objective. How these are shown from game to game
vary but the core is always there. But sometimes a game needs to give
you a bit more info and that's where the fun comes in. Crysis
is a breakthrough game graphically. It's gorgeous. But the real fun of
it is that you wear an exoskeleton that gives you extra armor, extra
speed, or makes you invisible depending on what you need at the moment
and your style of play. Switching between modes is done on the fly and
even during combat. There
are many UI designs that would have let us switch modes but the wheel
in the middle of the screen, controlled by the mouse, gives us ultimate
playability as well as bitchin' graphics. Plus, there's audio feedback
when you switch between modes which adds to the experience and helps us
confirm we did what we wanted to do. There's nothing like speed running
into a ton of bad guys, going full armor, blasting a few dudes, and
then disappearing into the jungle. The stellar UI makes it all possible. Sound Design. Listen, do you smell something? As
an industry, we spend millions on sound and music for TV spots. And we
should. It's incredibly important. You should treat your sites the same
exact way. Audio feedback on a button click lets the user know they did
in fact click. The music you choose can greatly effect the mood of the
site just like it does a TV spot. Go with cheesy needle drop and your
site will suffer. Sound is also used in games to tell you what's
happening and prepare you for what's coming. World of Warcraft
has some of the best sound and music you'll find and the audio cues it
gives you are incredibly helpful. Spell casters need to drink to have
energy to throw their fireballs. Even if I can't see them in front of
me, I can hear them drinking which lets me know I need to wait for them. (This clip starts out with the intro movie followed by real video of different game areas and their accompanying music) Give
your sites the music it needs and consider different music for
different site sections as needed. It can help create a better, unique
user experience. Story, Fun, Thrill. You've got to have something. Movies
really suck when their stories suck, nothing happens, and you get
nothing out of them. Duh. Games are the same way. A shooter that is the
same old run and gun experience quickly finds its way to the clearance
shelf. That's why games like Crysis, Borderlands, BioShock, and F.E.A.R.
succeed. They're familiar yet executed differently and thus are more
exciting. The story in BioShock is truly interesting and compelling.
F.E.A.R. is a good shooter but it's by far the creepiest and thrilling
game I've ever played (think Shining meets Jacob's Ladder with guns).
Crysis and Borderlands are just plain fun because of their game play
and graphics. But it's not just shooters. Tetris was/is incredibly fun.
Mario Cart provides hours of thrilling enjoyment. Sam and Max is a serialized gumshoe detective game known for its humorous and rich stories. (Don’t play F.E.A.R. in a dark room. Trust me.) Your
site should be just as engaging. Ask yourself, "What story am I trying
to tell?" It could be a story about customer service or innovative
products. Look at Apple's site. It screams innovative company from its design to its layout. Is your site fun? Uniqlo is known for its fun and inventive sites. As for thrilling, I personally think the Air Force Basic Training site is very exciting. But then, I'm biased. To
sum up: Play games. Learn from what they do. Apply it the next time you
concept a site, a mobile experience, an app, or even a banner. Be a
badass. Warning: Excessive gaming may be hazardous to your love life, social life, and bank account. Frag with caution.
Just thought of a great example to go with my earlier post. In this video, we're told the story of an ad agency trying to figure out how best to show the speed of a Samsung SSD (Solid State Drive). These are super fast drives that make nerds like me geek out. The IT guy (the target nerd) basically said, yeah one is fast but 24 strung together, now that would be really fast. And for nerds, really cool. Thus is born a video that makes nerds giggle with excitement. And judging from the 2.8 million views, those nerds are sharing their giggles with friends.
Go back to the whys: Why do I want to watch this video? It shows how wicked fast Samsung SSDs are and I think that's cool. Why do I want to share this video? Because I want to reveal in my nerdness with my nerd friends and talk about how wicked fast Samsung SSDs are. Once you have the whys, the what becomes pretty simple.
From a business stand point, this was a super cheap "spot" to create. There is no media buy. If you Google "SSD Drive" this video shows up on the first page. Pretty awsome ROI. Why is the way.
My dad forwarded me a link to this site earlier today. It's the first time he's forwarded anything worth forwarding. I believe there should be a strict of set rules regarding the use of the forward button and breaking those rules should result in the loss of all email privileges.
Anywho, besides loving the song, I love the fact that the Playing For Change project could not have happened without the Internet. In fact, PFC is a great metaphor for the Internet itself. Using a network of musicians, a little ingenuity, and a passion for music that already exists in the public at large, these guys have created a social network of musicians that can create an album without actually being in the same room, let alone the same country. Damn, I wish I didn't drop the clarinet in seventh grade.
WARNING: BAD LANGUAGE IN VIDEO. DON'T WATCH IF YOU'RE EASILY OFFENDED.
I love, love, love this video because it combines two of my great loves — World of Warcraft and musical theater. That's right people, I LOVE MUSICAL THEATER. My dorkiness is virtually off the scale.
This particular cut is from Avenue Q, a ribald musical combining puppets and songs that are "wrong" in so many ways. If you have sensitive ears and are easily offended do not see this show. If however you love the bizarre and funny and don't mind a few f-bombs and uncomfortable moments then this is the show for you.
To all you creatives out there I say, "See this show at all costs." It is by far one of the most inspiring shows I've ever seen. I sat in the audience thinking, "How the hell did they come up with that? I want to play in that playground!"
One more thing, note that this is yetanotherdisplay of users using video games to create their own content. Me smells a trend.
There's lots of crazy shit in the world. Luckily, there are millions of video cameras to capture it and YouTube to host it. Who knew ukuleles could be so cool?
This is the section where I tell you how smart I am and why you should listen to me. Truth is I’m not the smartest person at the party. I don’t have all the answers. But I do have something all those smarty pants don’t have, complete comfort with saying, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” This unique ability has made my transition from traditional advertising to digital marketing a bit smoother. Hopefully, it will help your transition, too.
